Django Admin Tools

0.9.3 · active · verified Thu Apr 16

django-admin-tools is a collection of utilities for the Django administration interface, providing features like a customizable dashboard, menu system, and theming. The current version is 0.9.3. While it supports recent Django versions, its release cadence is slow, with the last release in 2021, suggesting a maintenance-focused development.

Common errors

```
NoReverseMatch at /admin/ 'admin:index' is not a registered namespace!
```
cause `admin_tools.urls` was included after `admin.site.urls` in your project's `urls.py`.

fix Change the order in `urls.py` to include `admin_tools.urls` *before* `admin.site.urls`.
```
Admin theme not applying or default Django theme showing.
```
cause `admin_tools.theming` is not the first app in `INSTALLED_APPS`.

fix Ensure `'admin_tools.theming'` is the very first entry in your `INSTALLED_APPS` list in `settings.py`.
```
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'admin_tools.dashboard'
```
cause One or more required `admin_tools` apps are missing from `INSTALLED_APPS`.

fix Add all necessary `admin_tools` apps (`'admin_tools'`, `'admin_tools.theming'`, `'admin_tools.menu'`, `'admin_tools.dashboard'`) to your `INSTALLED_APPS` list in `settings.py`.

Warnings

gotcha The order of URL inclusion for `admin_tools.urls` and `admin.site.urls` is critical. `admin_tools.urls` must always be included *before* `admin.site.urls` in your main `urls.py`.
Fix: Ensure `re_path(r'^admin_tools/', include('admin_tools.urls'))` appears before `path('admin/', admin.site.urls)` in your project's `urls.py`.
gotcha For custom themes to apply correctly, `admin_tools.theming` must be the *very first* application listed in your `INSTALLED_APPS` setting.
Fix: Move `'admin_tools.theming'` to the beginning of your `INSTALLED_APPS` list in `settings.py`.
gotcha When customizing the dashboard or menu, you need to explicitly define `ADMIN_TOOLS_DASHBOARD` and `ADMIN_TOOLS_MENU` in your `settings.py` to point to your custom classes.
Fix: Add `ADMIN_TOOLS_DASHBOARD = 'your_project.dashboard.CustomDashboard'` and `ADMIN_TOOLS_MENU = 'your_project.menu.CustomMenu'` to `settings.py`, replacing paths with your actual custom files.
gotcha While `django-admin-tools` 0.9.x supports Django 4.x and 5.x, the documentation and older examples often use `django.conf.urls.url`. For modern Django projects, use `django.urls.re_path` or `django.urls.path`.
Fix: When defining your project's `urls.py`, use `re_path(r'^admin_tools/', include('admin_tools.urls'))` instead of `url()`.

Install

pip install django-admin-tools Install latest version

Imports

AdminToolsDashboard

from admin_tools.dashboard.models import Dashboard

AdminToolsMenu

from admin_tools.menu.models import Menu

Quickstart

To integrate django-admin-tools, add its apps to `INSTALLED_APPS` in `settings.py` (ensure `admin_tools.theming` is first, and all `admin_tools` apps come before `django.contrib.admin`). Then, include `admin_tools.urls` in your project's `urls.py`, making sure it comes *before* `admin.site.urls` to avoid `NoReverseMatch` errors. Note the use of `re_path` for compatibility with Django 4.0+.

# settings.py
INSTALLED_APPS = [
    'admin_tools.theming',
    'admin_tools',
    'admin_tools.menu',
    'admin_tools.dashboard',
    'django.contrib.admin',
    'django.contrib.auth',
    'django.contrib.contenttypes',
    'django.contrib.sessions',
    'django.contrib.messages',
    'django.contrib.staticfiles',
    # ... your other apps
]

# urls.py
from django.contrib import admin
from django.urls import include, path, re_path

urlpatterns = [
    re_path(r'^admin_tools/', include('admin_tools.urls')),
    path('admin/', admin.site.urls),
    # ... your other url patterns
]

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